The War to Start All Wars

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Just caught up with this story, and I can say its great. Lovely stuff to be sure, please keep the goods coming

[theCzar]

Chapter 10

The news of the defeat of the Korean army had spread throughout the Celtic empire at lightening pace, and for the first time in weeks, the Celtic spirit was lifted, even in the death traps of Holland, where the men had seemed more dead than alive. Pride and hope had replaced the grim resignation. The news coincided with the shock division in the Cleopatra’s Alliance. The English had withdrawn to their peninsular empire, but along the front, this good news was tempered by the re-emergence of the Egyptian army, thought already defeated.

The Celtic army in Korea advanced carefully towards the capital, they were still fifty miles away when an emissary arrived from the Koreans seeking terms for surrender. The meeting was quickly arranged, at the Celtic army camp by Brennus’s insistence. Emperor Wang Kon arrived with his entourage and made his way down a corridor formed by an honour guard of tanks, it was an intimidating passage. The Korean was humble and went to great lengths to explain how Cleopatra had tricked him, how the Celts and Koreans had long been friends, and how he hoped for a quick return to peace. Brennus let him speak for several minutes before shouting him to silence. Wang Kon was stunned, and terrified by this breach of protocol.

“Here are the terms that may allow you keep your head, and the heads of your people where they belong.” Brennus stated. “If you decide they unacceptable, we will burn your empire, and enjoy doing it, we don’t particularly have time such diversions, which is why we offer you terms at all. You attacked us without a formal declaration of war, despite being our friends, as you claim, and my people want Korean blood.” Said Brennus, warming to his speech. “Firstly, the remainder of your army is to be placed under Celtic command and ordered to assemble to the north of the Arabian dessert.” Wang Kon paled and started to object.

“Second.” Continued Brennus, cutting him off. “Your coffers are forfeited to the Celtic empire, and reparations will be paid twice annually for the next twenty years. Thirdly, while a local council will be given authority to rule the towns of Korea, they will ultimately fall under Celtic jurisdiction for the remainder of the war. You Koreans are a practical people, I’m sure you will see the benefits of going quietly, as opposed to getting crushed for any gesture of symbolic resistance. Before you answer for your people, let me tell you there will be no second meeting between us to discuss my terms, if I leave this meeting dissatisfied, it is you who will pay the terrible price.”

Nothing was said for several minutes, the Korean Army high commander was evidently outraged by the disrespect, but he held his tongue. Even Boru was surprised by the venom in the normally amiable Brennus.

“We Accept” said a quivering Wang Kon. He looked shell shocked.

“Then our business this evening is concluded. You will stay in the camp for the next few days and finalise the details with Boru and my aides. Sleep well, Wang Kon, you’ve just spared your people a lot of hardships, and consider yourself lucky, you should see the terms for Egyptian surrender.” With that Brennus was gone, he had other things to arrange.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Brilliant !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That was a great addition Keep going mate

[theCzar]

Chapter 11

The next morning, Boru and Brennus held a conference with the heads of the Celtic military

‘What are your plans, sir?’ Boru queried. ‘Are we moving south to link with the Korean forces?’

Brennus snorted ‘Of course not, it will take them a fortnight to get what remains of their army south, when they get there, they’ll be unreliable and treacherous. Also, our experiments with tanks in the Greek desert shows they are much more unreliable in such climates. May I draw your attention to this map, for a quick geography lesson?’ Brennus gestured towards a large map spread out on the conference table.

‘The Dutch mountains and Arab desert are useless to an occupying army, all supplies for all our enemies are shipped through Egypt, and more specifically, here, the Pharaoh pass, just 200 miles north west of our current position, if we can seize that passage, our tanks should easily hold it, the entire armies of Russia, Babylon and Scandinavia will be cut off from their supplies. We’ll have effectively seized a hundred thousand square miles’ Enthused Brennus. His generals were equally excited about turning this war but a young Lieutenant, who burst in without knocking, interrupted the good mood. He was evidently just off the saddle, judging from his dusty appearance, and he was breathlessly holding a dispatch towards the room at large.

‘Excuse me Lord… The Egyptians… are attacking’ He managed to say, as Boru intercepted the message. It was from the small detachment of troops who had been guarding the flank of the main armies advance into Korea, five miles to the south. The newly re-emerged Egyptian army was marching north. It had elements of the Russian and Babylonian armies, and was estimated at over thirty thousand men. The Celtic detachment was executing a fighting withdrawal eastwards, trying to draw them away from our base camp with some success. Brennus stood and quickly rattled off orders to the generals, the most decisive battle of the war was a few hours away. The loser of this would never recover.


The tank commander was confident. ‘Now we have them, our tanks will rubbish this assault like we did to the Koreans two days ago, and we’ll be putting our feet up in Thebes in a fortnight!’ He boasted. But Brennus silenced his bravado

‘I fear this is a very different engagement, Colonel, besides the larger enemy, this time, they are choosing the battleground. There will be no armoured surprise in the rear, these troops will be of a much higher quality than the Korean conscripts who surrendered so readily. They are lead by Cleopatra herself, so their troops will be more afraid of retreat than advance! I think this battle will depend on when the 2nd and 3rd tank battalions arrive, they’re not due until tonight, but if they hurry, they can make it in time to decide this fight.’

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Nice let them have it with all your tanks

[theCzar]

Chapter 12

Cleopatra caught up with the lead column, engaged with a bitter Celtic resistance. The General in charge bent double in an extravagant bow when he saw her approach.

‘The Celtic dogs are fighting like rats; they’re retreating as slow as they can, westwards, towards their main force. I’ve sent forces around them to find their positions.’ He said, red faced with excitement. But a look at his queen’s expression drained the colour from his cheeks.

‘You’re an idiot, general, and your position in my army was secured as a political expediency, when your brother was threatening scandal.’ Said Cleopatra, not wasting any breath with pleasantries. ‘The Celtic detachment would not retreat towards the main force. They’re luring you away from their base, to buy themselves some time. The location of the base is on your map, marked for us by the Koreans.’ She extolled calmly, pointing north. ‘Leave a hundred men to continue occupying the Celtic resistance, then report to the head of the punishment battalion. They’ll be leading the attack and they need a man of your… experience.

Cleopatra hurried back to direct the rest of her army north, if the Korean information was accurate, they would be upon the Celtic nest in only an hour. She knew this battle would be decisive, she knew she had the numerical advantage, she knew she had caught them by surprise, but she could not know how the Celt’s new war machines would affect the battle. Korean reports said high calibre artillery shells could destroy them and they were slow moving, but they were an unknown quantity in Cleopatra’s plans, and that made her uneasy.

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Celtic plans for defence were quickly put into place. The terrain ill-suited the tanks, with dense forest flanking the position and many steep hills, but this would hinder the formidable Egyptian cavalry as well. They could not charge the precarious Celtic positions. Since the tank’s lack of movement was a big liability in the face of the enemy guns, the decision was made to use them as fixed emplacements. Large earthen walls were piled up around the hulls of a dozen or so tanks, from which the Celts could fire down onto the battlefield without exposing themselves to counter fire. The rest were hidden from enemy guns behind the central ridge, the centre of the Celtic defence.

The battle started at two in the afternoon. Cleopatra’s advancing forces came under heavy fire from the large artillery pieces Brennus had stationed on his flanks. Egyptian sappers began to dig emplacements, and their artillery was inched forward until within range of the Celtic lines. Despite her greater numbers, it was clear Cleopatra was going to do this by the book. Only when her own artillery was in position, did her forces start to move forward towards the opposite end of the field. She had some five thousand troops move forward against the central rise. Meanwhile, she used her superior numbers to launch a large encirclement. Two detachments of around eight thousand men each were sent in wide arcs around the central position. The Babylonians commanded the east detachment, while the west was Russian. she could not afford for the Celts to slip away and regroup. She kept a sizeable reserve arrayed such as to exaggerate their number and disguise the disappearance of the Pincer detachments.

The job of the central thrust was merely to keep the Celts engaged without chasing them off, while the flanking groups got into position. The pincer detachments reported no resistance, though the Russian force that was moving northwest was behind schedule because of the harsh geography of the region. Cleopatra paced her tent, which served as the command centre. Her forces would have the Celts surrounded in an hour, and then it would be over quickly.

[theCzar]

Chapter 13

Brennus read the scouts report to himself again, it seemed Cleopatra was closing for the kill with large forces moving around his position. He gave the order for the bulk of his tanks and his entire reserve to attack the faster of the two detachments, that which was moving around to the east of his position. By attacking east now he was baring himself to Cleopatra’s other forces but his only hope was for the rest of his forces to arrive in time to deal with that. If he didn’t act now, this battle would be over long before they made it.

The east pincer was under the command of a shrewd Babylonian general who had led successful wars against all of Babylon’s enemies. His pincer group was largely composed of Babylon’s finest troops. He emerged from the forest, on to the grassy fields that lay behind the Celtic lines. He gave orders to position his troops to cut off Celtic retreat, but his artillery was causing untold delays, because it had to be constantly manhandled over the rough terrain. The cannons were ten minutes behind the rest of his army, he told his engineers to begin digging emplacements for it for when it arrived. He sent a messenger back to Cleopatra, to tell her he was in position. He looked up the hill and saw a large company of Celtic cavalry riding along the ridge in his direction, so he ordered his infantry into squares.

The Celtic cavalry was moving slowly, they were two hundred yards away and still they hadn’t charged. Suddenly, there was a roar from their midst, and the Celtic horses parted and ran back towards their lines, revealing some two dozen tanks rumbling towards the helpless infantry, still in tight formation. The General was furious; the Celts had used cavalry to tow their tanks silently and surprise him, it had certainly worked. He quickly dispatched a second message to Cleopatra, advising her that the Celts were attacking, and that their central position had been weakened. He gave the order to retreat to the woods but his men were slow in the constrictive square formation. The tanks were firing explosive shells at close range on a flat trajectory, and the hail of lead decimated the Babylonian troops, their infantry wavered, and suddenly broke, fleeing towards the safety of the trees. But it was too late; the Celtic cavalry wheeled around again and ran down many of the fleeing troops.

In the woods, from a perch high in the trees, a Celtic sniper watched the first enemy courier leave with his message for Cleopatra, telling her that all was well. The Sniper let him go, his orders were very specific, from Lord Boru himself. Kill the second messenger, then targets of opportunity. He saw from the corner of his eye, the Celtic advance, he watched intently as the Babylonian scribbled a note and handed it to a man in riding clothes. The dead man mounted his horse and dashed down the forest path. The first bullet caught the helpless courier at the base of his skull; there was no need for a second. The Celt grunted with satisfaction, and then trained his scope on the short general; the sniper really liked his job.

The Celtic cavalry pursued the beaten foe, forcing the retreating enemy deep into the woods, where many got lost and others ran into the Celtic rangers who slipped through the forest like ghosts. Brennus had gambled and won so far, so he made the risky decision to depend on reinforcements, and sent his tanks down the forest path, towards Cleopatra’s east flank. Meanwhile, Cleopatra was starting to relax as the afternoon wore on, news had arrived that the Babylonian group was in position, and ready to attack, if only she knew.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Superb stuff, gripping stuff